From Iraq to Irancy

Wednesday saw the 58th Oxford v Cambridge wine-tasting match sponsored by Pol Roger. It was so dramatic and revealed such interesting characters that I have been persuaded to devote one of my Saturday articles for the Financial Times to it on the Saturday of this year's Boat Race, 26 March.

Here, meanwhile, is a foretaste, an interview with one of the Cambrdge team. Captain David Beall, 30, of the US Army Reserve has served in Iraq (twice) and Afghanistan and is currently a graduate student at Cambridge. I caught him sipping champagne at the Oxford & Cambridge Club in Pall Mall, London, where the taste-off was held. Nerves were very taut at this point - though possibly not as taut as in some quarters of Helmand province.